486 as router with 3Com 3c515's

[Travail]

I'm trying to set up my 486DX/66 as a router, and keep running into problems. I'm using two 3Com 3c515 cards, which are Plug-and-Play 10/100 ISA cards.

Currently both cards are in my old Pentium-2 -- which does support Plug-and-Play ISA cards. The router is being set between my home LAN (8-port switch) and my cable modem. Coyote Linux is running as the router software, and there haven't been any problems. Running a P2 as a router is overkill, and I'd like to use it for other things.

I've tried a number of different configurations of the cards while they were in the 486: changing the IO Address and IRQ (with 3Com's software), changing ISA slots, manually loading the modules, etc. Nothing has worked so far: Coyote Linux fails to see either card, and BBIagent crashes with a kernel panic.

Does anyone have any ideas? (Other than buying new NICs )

 

[mgpaulus]

Are you using, or do you have access to ISAPNP, or the isatools? Usually the kernel has to recognize the cards. And your bios on your 486 board may not be PNP compliant. Which would mean that you will have to statically set the parameters on the 3C515 cards, and then you may have to add parameters to the module load statements so that each occurrence of the module can find it's specific card that it needs to interact with.

HTH.

 

[MedicBob]

Also, you may need to disable the PnP settings on the NIC, then configure manually. Which is basically what mgpaulus just said above.

Dowload the NIC drivers from 3com and there should be the tools needed.